How to START Your Business | No Gimmicks, Just Real Steps

Hello, Believe Nation! Welcome to another edition of the Evan Carmichael Show. I'm your host Evan Carmichael. I believe in entrepreneurs and I'm excited to be here with you today to help you grow your business, answer your questions, take that dream of yours and turn it into something that's actually getting some momentum, that you're bringing in customers, that you're having a positive impact on the world. That's what this show is all about. Now today I'm doing a special mailbag edition. So a lot of you have been writing into me and leaving messages on my YouTube and Facebook and Twitter, and I thought I'd read some of the questions that came in and answer them for you in addition to taking your calls, because I love talking to you guys too. That's what makes the show. So today what I'm going to be talking about is how to get started, how to get started with your business, how to stay motivated, how to deal with creativity overload, and pitching advertisers. So let's jump in. The first question was about how to get How do you get started? It came from William Boateng. He writes in to say, I'm in college studying fashion design and my dream is to become an entrepreneur and own my own clothing line, but I don't seem to know how to start or where to begin. Thank you. So this is a great question and one that everybody goes through as you're starting the business, right? You're— you may not have any entrepreneurs in your family, you may not have any entrepreneur role models kind of growing up. So how do you get started? How do you take that idea, that dream of yours, into a tangible business idea? Now, my advice on that is maybe a little controversial, maybe a little against the grain. I honestly think that if you had zero experience in business, zero experience as an entrepreneur, the best thing you can do is getting out of his fashion college, go work for somebody. Yeah, that's right, the guy who preaches entrepreneurs telling you to go get a job. And the reason is you're going to make a ton of mistakes. There's a reason why 80% of new businesses fail. There's a reason. You're going to make a lot of mistakes, and too many entrepreneurs jump in and they put all their money, their investments, they may cash out any retirement savings, they take out a loan, they dive into their business, they make tons of mistakes, and they end up failing. And they end up having to go back and get a job and do the thing that they hate. And so I would say go find a job, but not just any job, not a job just to make you money. Go find a job where you can learn something. So what I would do is try to find a small company. So if we're looking at fashion, go find a small fashion company. Find a company where there's 10 employees or less, where the founder is doing something that you want to do. You know, you can see yourself being this person in the next couple years. Go work for them. Go learn from them. Get paid to make mistakes, right? Get paid to make industry contacts and connections. Get paid to understand how the business works. And what I try to do as much as possible is get as close to the entrepreneur founder as you can. So don't just go and do whatever you were hired to do, right? Don't just go and do the one thing that they said, hey, you know, William, this is what we hired you to do. Go do this. Look for ways to expand your reach. Look for ways to learn more. Look for ways to get as involved and in-depth as possible. And, you know, any entrepreneur, you look at an entrepreneur with a business of 10 employees or less, they're stretched, right? They're stretched to the max. They're doing so many projects. And for an employee to step up and say, "Hey, I'd like to get involved in this project," or, "Hey, I've got some ideas to help you grow your business," "Hey, I'd like to get involved in this," that's awesome, right? And you do it for pay, do it for free, whatever. You want to get in and get that experience, that extra experience on top of what you're hired to do. So that's my first bit of advice, is go work for someone who's doing what you want to do and learn from them, because you will be able to understand how the business works much more quickly by working with someone who's currently doing it than trying to figure it all out yourself. And that's what most entrepreneurs do, is they try to figure it all out themselves, and you end up going out of business because you don't have all the answers. So start off by working for somebody else. That's okay. Next, number 2 is model success. Go find someone who's done exactly what you want to do. And again, not, not somebody to work for, but people who you look up to. You know, look at people in the fashion industry. Look at someone like Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren and look at how they got started. Use their stories of success, of coming from nothing, of having zero connections and zero startup capital, and how did they overcome those odds. The fastest way to achieve any goal is to model someone who's already gone out and done it. So in the first instance, we're doing it by going and getting the job and modeling the entrepreneur face-to-face. The second one is you're modeling someone who's achieved a lot more success, someone who's accomplished much bigger things and looking at their store to one, inspire you to let you know that yeah, you can do this. You look at Calvin Klein and Armani and all of these famous fashion designers, they started from nothing, right? And looking at those stories can help you stay motivated, stay inspired, want to keep going on your journey. But two, it'll also give you specific ideas on what you could do to get your business going. Specific strategies. How did they get their first customer? How did they come up with their designs? How did they market their business? How did they hire a team? All of these lessons, you don't have to figure it all out yourself. It's already been done over and over and over and over and over again. So stop trying to come up with every idea yourself and go out and model those successful strategies. Okay, so number 1, go work for someone else who's already doing what you want to do. Number 2, model success from famous entrepreneurs who are in your industry. And number 3 is start on the side. I'm a big fan of starting. I'm just not a big fan of going all in, burning the bridges, cashing in your retirement savings, selling every asset you own to raise the capital to start. Start small, start on the side, start by moonlighting, start by— you have that job and you're, you're making your income, but then you're also starting. You're not waiting 5 years before you get something going. So start right now, start with your designs, start trying to sell them, start trying to market them, start trying to do collaborations and work with people in the industry, right? Do that on the side, weekends, evenings, so you're getting started, you're getting some traction, you're getting your momentum, because It's going to take a long time typically for a startup to start getting some traction, so might as well start now. By the time you're making a little bit of money with your business, the ideal time to kind of quit your job and go into your business full-time is when you're making some money from your part-time business and you feel like you've capped out, like you've learned everything you need to learn at your job. If you stop learning at your job and you're there just for the paycheck, that's when it's time to move on. Ideally, you're making a little bit of money already from your own business that you can leave that, jump in your company, and go full-time. Okay, so number 1, go work for someone who's already doing it. Number 2, model success from famous entrepreneurs. And number 3, start on the side, start part-time, start right now. I want to share a quick story of how this kind of saved my business, and I've told this maybe a couple times, but my first company was a software business, and I was struggling. I was fresh out of university. I didn't know what to do. I was falling into the trap that most entrepreneurs fall into and trying to do everything myself. And I felt like I was a smart guy, you know, I'd succeeded in everything I had done previously, and I felt like anything I applied myself to, if I worked hard at it, then I would start getting results. Whether it was school or sports or music, whatever. If I practiced, if I gave my all to it, I would get better and I would start seeing results. That wasn't happening in my business. I was applying myself, I was working hard, you know, I was eating sleeping, breathing, bleeding this business, and I wasn't getting any results. I wasn't getting any momentum. I was making $300 a month. I was, I was not able to survive. And I told my partner one day that I quit because it was, it was too hard. It was too much. I felt zero self-worth. And the turning point came for me when I realized that I'm not the first guy to try to do this before. You know, I was, I was 19 years old, I was selling software, I was in a specific field that was really niche that there weren't a lot of players in. But I figured, you know, I'm not the first guy to try to sell software before. Who's the biggest software company in the world and how can I model their success? And at the time it was Microsoft. And so I looked at Microsoft and looked at Bill Gates, their founder, and looked at how he got started. And the bigger the company is, the easier it is to find their story and how they got started. And I looked at how they did it and they did it through partnerships. They found people who were already selling to their target audience and, and they found ways to partner up with them to expand the Microsoft name. And their big deal came with IBM where every IBM shipped had Microsoft software on it. And that was the deal that put Microsoft on the map. But Microsoft was already a $7 million company when they made that deal. That's, that's, that's a small company, but that's nothing. That's, that's like, I would still rather be $7 million than where I was. And so I copied that strategy, and Microsoft got to $7 million through partnerships, and I figured I could do partnerships as well. And I started researching who was selling to my audience. I was selling to scientists, so who was— who also was selling to scientists? And I found a distributor. My first deal was, was in Europe, and I sold him an upfront license fee of $13,500 to sell my software. And that, that was, that was the lightbulb moment for me, because finally I had a way to make money. Finally, you know, that's not a lot of money, $13,500, but, but for me, for me earning $300 a month, that was huge. And so these strategies work. Stop trying to do everything yourself. Number 1, again, William, go out, work for someone who's doing this that you can model from them, learn from them. Number 2, model success. Find a famous entrepreneur that you look up to—Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, whoever it is. Learn from them. Research their beginnings, not how they make an extra million now, but their very start. Learn from that and then start on the side. Start your business right now, part-time. Don't wait. Get some traction, get some momentum, and continue to build. Up next from the mailbag is Michelle Batson, who wrote in to say, one of my biggest problems is creativity overload. How can I find a way to turn this into a business that helps others who struggle with this as well? It's a great question. I think a lot of entrepreneurs We are creative, right? You got to be a creative bunch to be an entrepreneur. And I think the biggest thing if you want to turn this into a business is you have to solve it yourself, right? Whatever problem you're facing right now, the opportunity is in solving it before you can turn it into a business. So I think of it a lot like franchise businesses. Before you can franchise your business, you need a successful location yourself. And so, Michelle, I'd say you either need to focus, you know, focus on one thing that you're really creative in and that you want to drive forward, it pursues your kind of life's mission and passion, focus on that. Or find a way that by being creative, you can apply that to other people's business. Go prove the model, right? Go, go be that creative spark for other businesses and other entrepreneurs. And that leads you to your founding story. So, you know, you have to be able to have a story that people can connect with. And by saying, you know, I was a really creative person and I was overloaded, and then here are all the struggles I went through. And then here's how I solved it, right? To build a business, you have to solve the problem. So either focus on, on one specific thing that you're really creative at that you want to build a business around, or go help other people be creative and add value to their businesses. And once you've figured out that model, we've solved that problem, then you can apply it to other people who have that same issue of creativity overload. All right, Michelle, good luck. Thanks for the great question. I want to get to the calls. That's what this show is all about. I have Antonio on the line. Antonio, where are you from and how can I help?

Hi, I'm Antonio from Lufkin, Texas. Texas, welcome to the show. Thank you. I have this brand that I came up with. It's called Just Be You. And I created this brand from a personal experience when I was 12. And I just don't know how to go about getting my brand out to get people to understand where I'm coming from with the Just Be You. Now, the DSBU came from, like I said, when I was 12, I was molested twice by my aunt's boyfriend. And no one knew for a long, long, long, long time. And finally I was like, at school, I was fighting all the time. I was going to alternative. I was going to jail. I was like doing a whole bunch of negative stuff as a younger person because I had so much pain built up to where I was like, you know what? Fighting and cussing is not really just what's gonna solve the problem. I need to open up and let people know this is what happened to me and do something positive with it. But I don't know how to jump off with it. You kind of get where I'm going with it? I don't know how to start it off.

What is the message behind "Just Be You"? What are you— are you trying to tell people don't be afraid of what happened? Get out of, you know, whatever secrets you have in the past?

It goes from your sexuality. It goes from that all the way up to you just coming out being A trait, I mean, it's just whatever you want to be. It's just anything. Just be yourself. You don't have to pretend to be somebody you're not and pretend to be somebody that you try to be. It just also just means be yourself.

Cool. I mean, it's a fantastic message, easy to understand. What I would suggest to you is now drill down into different segments. So if it's, for example, people who've suffered through child abuse like you went through, what should they do? Like, how do I be myself now? Like, what are the steps that I need to take? So you're giving the motivational inspirational part of your message, but then also the practical how-to steps and how to overcome it and how to deal with it. And maybe not solve it, but lessen the pain and make it easier for others who are going through the same thing. So if you have your Antonio or Just Be You methodology on how to attack each of these issues, then that helps solve the puzzle. So it's more than just an aspirational inspirational message at the top, but then also here are like the 5, 7, 10 steps that you need to do in order to just be you and live a happier life.

Wow. It's just, you know, it's just complicated when, you know, you be— how can I put it? You be sexuality is not what really people would really like, you know. You know, it's kind of hard to get a brand out when people's looking at you because of your sexuality. That's kind of like, kind of hard when you're trying to come up with this industry space, basically. You know, everybody's very judgmental, and I can't seem to get around that. Like, everywhere I go, like, I'd have been in Houston, I'd have been in Dallas, you know, trying to start club promoting with the shirts and stuff, you know. I just been doing a lot of things. It's just that I can't get that I need to get to where I need to be. And it frustrates me. It makes me mad. I find myself back to the same person that I was before I started Just Be You. And I just need other ways to get around that. It seems like I'm going on this ongoing cycle that keeps continually playing in my head over and over again.

Right. Okay. So I empathize with you, man. Entrepreneurship is hard. I would— I have two things for you. One, I would get over the You're holding yourself back with your belief that because you're gay, you're not going to be received by people. There's lots of people who are gay who have great messages, who are loved in America, and who have built amazing brands. We all have these stories. I used to tell myself when I was 19 and started my business, "I'm too young. Nobody's going to listen to me." It wasn't until I broke through that personal limiting belief that I achieved more success. The short answer on that one is for you, just be you. Be gay, be proud, be happy about it. That's not holding you back. It's part of who you are and that empowers you to be more successful. Let go of that limiting belief. I know it's hard, but looking at gay entrepreneurs who could be role models for you, Calvin Klein, Ellen DeGeneres, whoever it is, and knowing that these people are achieving success in part because they're gay, not in spite of them being gay. So that's a key kind of mental breakthrough you have to make on your own. The second bit is I would start making alliances. This is more kind of practical. Make alliances with people who are targeting your same audience. So if there are organizations, there are businesses who are trying to help people who have gone through child abuse, right? Those are the people you want to be partnering up with. And if it's t-shirts you're selling or ebook or whatever, those are the people who can directly influence your market. So start making a list of all the people who are, we call influencers, to your market. You know, if you were selling to entrepreneurs, you want to talk to me because I'm an influencer in the entrepreneur space. So you want to be talking to all the people who are influencers in, in the child abuse space as a good start and let them know what you're all about, what you're doing, the t-shirts, your projects. If you're doing speaking, whatever it is, so they can help spread your message for you. Instead of you going out to one, one, one, one at a time, you're talking to people who can send your message to thousands of people at a time.

Wow, I never really just looked at it like that.

All right, lots to work on, Antonio. Thank you so much for calling in, and if you have more questions, I'm on every 2 weeks. I'd love to hear from you again.

Okay, and I thank you for having me.

All right, take care. And for everybody listening, listen, we all have these limiting personal beliefs. There's a story you're telling yourself that's holding you back, whether it's you're a woman, you're too old, you're too young, you're gay, you're an immigrant, whatever it is, is all these stories, it's only in your head. You gotta break through that, and when you do, you'll start to achieve massive success with your business and in your life. This show is all about turning your business dreams into a success, and we're doing Mailbag Edition, so I'm answering your questions. Next up is Umer, who wrote in to say, Hi Evan, most people have dreams. They watch lots of motivational videos, but when it comes to doing stuff, they just don't feel the responsibility and keep on delaying. Most of the time they're not stuck in any problem at all, but they just don't want to do it. Your thoughts on this would be very helpful, please. Staying motivated is one of the hardest things that you have to do as an entrepreneur because, you know, you have these dreams, you're all excited, you're working your butt off, you're putting everything in, And when you're not seeing results, when you're not seeing things come back, momentum from all the effort and love that you're putting in, it's frustrating. It always takes way longer than we think. It's always way harder than we think. And even when people tell us that, it still doesn't prepare us for how hard it really is. And I often find that as entrepreneurs, we may have this bold idea, right? We have that moment of boldness that we want to say, step outside and do something big and do something that stretches our comfort zone that we're afraid of. And then you sleep on it and the next day you wake up and you're like, where did that idea go? And you think, that's stupid, that's too silly, I can't do that. And the story you tell yourself kicks in again and prevents you from doing something great. And so staying motivated is really hard because you can be on top of the world one day and the next day you're starting over from scratch. So here's some ideas. Here's, here's what I do that I think can really help. First of all, you create an environment because your environment right now holds you where you are. The people in your life, the media you consume, the music you listen to, the books you read, your daily habits, the environment that you've created for yourself holds you where you are. And so if you want to get to the next level, change your environment and create a routine that supports you. Create a routine that reminds you that you're on a path for greatness. Because if you don't do that and you let your routine and your environment dictate what you do, then you're never going to achieve anything huge. For me, I'll wake up and I'll put music on that inspires me already and gets me in the flow, gets me excited. I'll then remember my big why. What is my big why? You have to have a big why. Why are you doing this? Why is it important? Important to you? Why are you waking up every day? Why did you quit that job so you can do this? What is your big why? For me, I want to help a billion entrepreneurs. That motivates me, that inspires me. And then have little whys. And your little whys are the things that kind of every day keep you excited and motivated. For me, it's honestly hearing from you guys. The comments on the radio show, the comments on my YouTube channel and Twitter and Facebook. People writing in saying, Evan, your message really helped me. That stuff, that keeps me motivated, right? Keeps me excited, keeps me knowing that what I'm doing is important. That's what you need. You need validation that the work that you're doing is important to some people. Because when you're not seeing money, when you're not seeing momentum, you're not seeing results, you feel worthless. You feel like you don't have any value. And so when you remind yourself that, yes, I do have value, yes, I am impacting some people's lives, then that makes it easier for you to get up and go do more work. I try to create a schedule where I start with that. That's my morning. I look at that every day so that I don't rely on some random meeting happening at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then I'm all excited. I want to be excited from the minute I wake up. That's what I do. I create a schedule that supports me. I think of my big whys and I remember my little whys. So try to do that for yourself. What kind of schedule can you do? What's in your environment that is holding you back, that's not allowing you to be great? Change it. Replace it with something that does make you feel inspired and motivated and thinking bigger. Remember your big why, why you're doing this. What's the big goal you're trying to accomplish? Why is it important to you? Write that down somewhere, put it in front of your computer, put it on your desk somewhere so that you can see it. And then 3 is your little whys. Things that customers have written in, people have told you, I used to have a PowerPoint file that I kept of all the notes that customers wrote into me. Just something you can look at every day and remind yourself that, yeah, what I'm doing is actually having an impact on people's lives. It's still hard, but that's how I stay motivated. And best of luck to you because I know it's a challenge going through that every day. I have Barbara on the line. Barbara, where are you from and how can I help?

I'm calling from Rockingham, North Carolina.

All right, welcome to the program.

What's going on? Well, I have 30 years restaurant and retail management experience and I don't want to work for anybody anymore. I need my own business, but I'm so conflicted with what type of business I want. I really want to, um, to exploit the talents that are in the Carolinas and make that a business. So I'm wondering if it should be a talent agency. I'm just, I don't know. And how am I going to benefit? I'm just confused. I don't know. Is that enough information for you to help me out? Barbara, I am feeling your passion.

I'm feeling it. Honestly, the best thing for you to do is to start exploring. Start trying stuff without it being a full-time business yet, without it being where you're committing your money and resources to. Start exploring. So if you're thinking about a talent agency, try it, right? Like, try helping one person out, see if you like it. Try working part-time, moonlighting at a talent agency. Do you like it? Does it make you come alive? That's what you need to find. It's something that makes you come alive, and then you'll find a way to turn that into a business. It all has to start around the passion, right? So explore different opportunities. It's okay to jump from one thing to another thing to another thing. Explore something that you're excited about and see if you fall in love with it to the point where you want to turn it into a business. So the talent agency is one thing. What are some of your other ideas?

I was thinking about a really, really classy restaurant because in my hometown, we only had— there's only like 95 people, 9,900 people, right? So I was thinking about in the old The only full-scale restaurant we have is fast. So I was thinking about a really, really nice restaurant, upscale restaurant with a variety of food, not just steak and chicken, but a little bit of this, a little bit of that, totally upscale. I just, I had an idea of, I had it written down and I can't remember all of the details, but I wanted an upscale restaurant that it was something totally different than my town has seen. Ever.

Barbara, you have 30 years experience in the restaurant business, so that makes logical sense, but do you love the restaurant business?

Loved it, loved it.

So why aren't you doing it? Why aren't you finding the right partner and starting that business? Why are you thinking about a talent agency when you have all this experience in restaurants and love it so much?

But I have just as much experience in the talent business. I've been on the stage since I was a kid. I had my own radio talk show. I'm I've modeled in Puerto Rico, Germany, Dallas, Texas. I've written shows. I've been on the stage. I've got that just as much experience on the stage, probably more. And I love that even more. That's what I love the most.

So then go do that. You love— you just said it right there. You love that even more. That's what you love the most. So that's what you need to find out and explore, dive deep into that industry and see where you fit. It may be a talent agency. It may be coaching people. It may be setting up a media company. You have to find your way through. You're not going to— the idea you come up with right now is not going to be the idea that you end up with, and that's okay. But you have to start to figure out what your plan is going to be. You got to jump in. What's something you can do right now to start testing it out?

Well, I could start just having little shows right in my hometown, which is what I'm considering doing. Just having small shows right here in my hometown.

What's holding you back from doing that? So why aren't you doing that now? What's holding you back?

Well, because I was working full time and involved in a lot of other community things for Martin Luther King's birthday. So now that that's over with, I can, I can get to it. I'm gonna hop right to it. I am. That's exactly what I plan on doing.

I love it. So good start, and then see if you love it and see what you fall in love with and see what direction that takes you, because that's, that's got to be your answer. It has to be something that you are passionate about, something that you love doing, and you'll figure the rest out. But you got to start, right? Like, that's the key. So many people have these ideas, they write them down, and they don't do anything with them. And it's okay for the idea to change. Like, you may start putting on that show and you realize, ah, the show, like, that was good, but that's not really where my burning passion is. And you switch, and that's cool. Like, it's okay to jump from one thing to another thing. It's way better to not settle, right? Don't settle for something that's okay and keep the lookout for something that's great.

Okay. Well, I really appreciate your advice. I'm glad that I get a chance to talk to you today.

All right, no problem, Barbara. Good luck. And for everybody listening, it's so critical to start a business around your passion. Like, here's Barbara who's been in the restaurant business for 30 years and she likes it, but her real passion is something else, right? So stop waiting, jump in, do something, try it out, and, and it's okay not to have it all figured out. You will never have it all figured out from the start. It's not gonna happen. You're gonna make mistakes, and that's okay, and you learn by getting in and doing that. Just minimize the downside, okay? Don't go in and spend all this money trying something. Try without spending money. See if you love it, see what makes it come alive, see what you are deeply passionate about, and then find a way to turn it into a business. But it doesn't happen unless you start. So today has been the mailbag edition. I've been answering your questions. People have been writing in to me, leaving comments on social media. The next question is from Peter Fish, and he wrote in to say, Evan, I started an online magazine. My second edition of my magazine is just one week old, and I have 1,000 readers already. My problem is I don't know if I should use that as a pitch to advertisers or if I should continue with my branding process. Peter, first of all, hey, congratulations, man. 1,000 readers after your second edition. That's great progress. I don't know what you're doing to market yourself. I don't know who your target audience is, but that's great progress. You should be proud. There's a lot of people who are launching magazines and have a really hard time getting readership. Congrats on your success so far. Keep it going. Now, to answer your question, I'm a huge fan of embracing the genius of the end. So a lot of times entrepreneurs ask me questions like this, where it's, "Should I do this or should I do that?" And it's things that they want to do both of them, but they can't work it out in their head how to do it. That's the secret. You got to combine them. Find a way to do both. Don't live in that black and white world where, "Can I do this or this?" The solution, the best answer is find a creative way to do both. Jim Collins has written a lot of great books. Some of my favorites are Built to Last, and he was looking at companies that went from nothing to building huge empires and then lasting. Not just building up and fizzling out, but lasting over generations and generations. And one of the common traits between them was that they were consistently embracing the genius of the end. So doing both. Finding things that most people thought of, I can only do one or the other, and doing both of them together. So that's the first. So try to do both. One next thing, they're going to look at your circulation, your demographics, right? You don't have a lot of growth yet, but, but pitch it as this is something that we're growing. And is it targeted, right? If it's a specific market that somebody really wants to reach, hey, that 1,000 readers could be really special to them, could be really valuable to them. I would also look at ninja projects and things like approaching known sponsors and look at them to do an interview instead of asking for advertising right away. Do an interview with them, do a story on them, let them know who you are, what you're all about, and hopefully they get some results, right? By being in your magazine, they got views, they got leads, and, you know, they were able to see some results from that. Then it's easy to follow up with them and ask for an advertising buy. Where if you go straight in and say, hey, advertise on my magazine, you're up there with everybody else who's asking for ad dollars. So I'd look at ninja approaches to get in, to get them aware about your magazine and what you're trying to do. And once they know you, like you, trust you, it's way easier to open up that conversation to start selling advertising. So that's it. 1, embrace the genius of the end, do both. 2, look at your circulation, your demographics, and see if you can really hone in on a target audience that sponsors want to work with. And, and 3, use a ninja approach to try to get some sponsors on board. Do a story on them, let them know you trust you, like you, and then expand from there. I have, I have time for one quick caller. Show's almost out. One quick call. I've got Maria on the line. Maria, where are you from and how can I help?

Hi, I'm from Long Island, New York, and thank you for taking my call. I know you're very busy and you're helping so many people. It's wonderful. Thank you. My quick question is, I wrote a TV pilot. I write, I'm an actress, I'm also a private duty nurse, esthetician. I do several different businesses. And my question is, I have two stories and I'm trying to debate One is very humorous and it's really good for the soul and the heart. The other one, it's not a dark story, but it shows the reality of what money can do to some people, not everyone, but some people in the medical field. And I'm not sure, my question is, do I do it as two different projects? You might have answered the question on the, with the last person you were speaking to, or can I incorporate that maybe one episode into my storyline. I mean, it's pretty major, horrific things that were going on with this one family. Um, and it's not that I want to end on a negative note because I want to empower people and let them know what goes on behind the scenes as a private duty nurse. I see a lot of wonderful people, wonderful medical doctors, but I also see people that are exploiting the elderly. So my question is, should I have that incorporate that in my storyline or do it as two separate entities?

Yeah, it's a great question, and honestly, I would look at what do you— what feels right, you know? What do you— you're looking at TV shows, what do you think is missing from TV shows? Because you can shine light on a certain issue through different ways. You can shine light on elderly abuse through showing really dark stories, or you can also shine light on things through comedy. And so it's scene, you know, what, what approach do you feel more passionate about?

I'm very passionate about comedy and empowering people. I, I would much rather focus on the good in every scenario. Now, sometimes family members of mine think I'm in la-la land, but there are so many good people out there. So my focus would be on the good, but still, you know, giving the knowledge out because people need to be aware. And I think that I can do it in a positive way of showing God's love without being super religious or showing the dark side because it's not all about that. There are a lot of good people and I've worked with them. I've been blessed enough and fortunate enough to work with them. So I guess I will put it back in your court.

I love it. I mean, there's so much. If you look at the media, you look at the news, it's always the— if it bleeds, it leads, right? It's always the It's always the bad stuff that's happening, and I think you can definitely shine a light on something. You can even shine a light on something negative, but do it in a positive way and say, "This is a really bad situation, but here's how these heroes are stepping up and solving it." And so it could be an inspirational tone. It could be— you could do it through comedy if you like as well. I really strongly urge you to figure out, one, what is the message that you want to get out there, and two, what is the style, the approach that you want to attack it with and figure out what means the most to you. Like what feels right, what's missing on TV right now that nobody is doing that this is what people are really going to connect with. It can work either way, but it's more down to your personality. Absolutely correct, and I appreciate that.

And I think it is about giving people hope.

I love it, Maria. We've got to cut it off, but thank you so much for the call. Best of luck on the show. Another great episode. Thank you guys, everybody. Christy, Josh, my producers, everybody listening. We'll be back in 2 weeks. Stay tuned. Have a great couple weeks. Keep believing, and I'll see you soon.

Hi, Raquel English here with Mermaid Junkie TV. Are you on Evan's newsletter subscription? If not, you should be. I read every single one, and you should too.

Ciao!